Paul McCartney: Many Years From
Now by Barry Miles
A Great Manner To Unveil Some Beatlemania Myths, And Break Unfair Accusations
About Beatles' Real Circumstances Of Their End!
If you think John Lennon was the smart, arty Beatle while Paul was an
empty head twittering prettily, this book will hip you to the facts. While
John sat in the suburbs getting stoned to numb the pain of his imminent
divorce, bachelor Paul was feeding his head by immersion in the London
avant-garde. He pioneered the Beatles experimental stuff, though his witty
song-by-song account proves that it really was a 50-50 partnership--and
some of the best innovations, like the snarling 1964 feedback intro to I
Feel Fine, happened by pure accident. Pauls insight into Johns genius,
which sprang from howling paranoia and a stark childhood, is still deeper
than his insight into himself, but the books true glory is its inside info on
all those songs--the six tunes about Johns marriage on A Hard Days
Night; Pauls heist of the I Saw Her Standing There bass line from Chuck
Berrys Im Talking About You (found on Berrys The Chess Box); the true
meanings of Norwegian Wood (pine paneling, which the songs narrator
burns to avenge the girls refusal to have sex with him), Got to Get You

into My Life (you is marijuana), and Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da (life goes on in
Yoruba). This book is even better than A Hard Days Write: The Stories
Behind Every Beatles Song and Revolution in the Head. Here is the last
word on the Beatles, inevitably slanted toward McCartney but generally
more convincing than Lennons own recollections. --Tim Appelo
Personal Review: Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now by
Barry Miles
Of countless Beatle books I have read, Many Years From Now is the best.
I do not say so without qualifacation: I realize this is only Paul McCartney's
end of the story, but by 2009, everybody who knows anything about the
mighty Beatles has already come to his or her own conclusions about this
massive story.
That said, I have been a Beatle fan, and student, 30 years, and this book
taught me a lot about the fab four.
We tend to think of the Beatles as inward, because their myth is so huge,
and their genius an island onto itself. But this book reveals different. In the
mid-late 60s, it was not uncommon for Paul to go to a club, and hang out
with Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton, drinking and trading ideas until the
swinging London sun rose. Early? Go to John Mayall's flat, and he'll teach
you anything you want about the blues. Or, go see your less famous pals,
smoke a joint and listen to Cage and Stockhausen. Wake up, go for a pint
and have lunch and visit your friends at an art gallery, or, work on an
underground newspapaer.
Indica, 8mm film, light shows: these guys, at least Paul, were at the heart
of what was going on during the era, and knew and were active in every
nook and cranny, including many I had no idea about. They NEVER
worked in a vacuum.
The same goes for the music. All Beatle music has permeated our DNA.
We have listened so much, it is as natrual as breath, and at times, we take
it for granted or hear it as shopworn. But during its creation, these guys
listened too: "Got To Get You Into My Life," that's Paul's take on Motown.
"Penny Lane," the trumpet came from him seeing a Bach performance on
the BBC. "And I love Her," that's Jobim. Like any lovers of music, these
guys were influance sponges.
Reading, I was compelled to take out my Beatles albums, listening in the
context Miles puts them. It proves as a music lover, no matter how
esorteric your tastes get, no matter how long since you have played the
Beatles, you go back and peal the layers again, like you have all your life.
The music again reveals itself in a new way, and you are replenished,
ready for new musical outer limits, probably somehow Beatles influanced

Obviously, this book made me see and hear my heros in new detail, in
living color. Miles was a friend of Paul's, and was there for a lot of what he
wrote. Most books about the Beatles document, but this book lets you into
their world. You can feel what it was like.
The pictures: even these are super revealing. In one, Paul sits in a
turtleneck in front of his stereo, a bottle of stake sauce on the table. Think
of all the glamor idiocy associated with pop stars, and here is Sir Paul,
hanging out with his stereo, having a burger, just like we might, absorbing
the music. (What do you think it was: Milton Babbit? Elmore James? It's
fun to speculate.)
I can only scratch the surface here of how much I learned from this book.
Apple, Zapple, LSD, stu Sutcliffe, Alan Klien, anything you're not clear on
is here in glorious detail. But this is no tell-all trash book, but a window into
the world of our greatest artists. I don't take all I read in here as gospel--
and in 2009, who cares whether or not Yoko broke up the Beatles. The
important thing is the music, and the winodw Many Years From Now
provides into that music.
And for that, I can't think of a better Beatle book.
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